Cleveland--Transgender inclusion
will again be negotiable when the Employment
Non-Discrimination Act hits Congress next
year, said Human Rights Campaign president
Joe Solmonese.

“It depends on who the president is and
their intentions,” Solmonese told the Gay
People’s Chronicle before the HRC’s
Cleveland fundraising dinner March 29.
He added that it is unclear if 48 questionable
votes on the matter can be counted on to
favor transgender inclusion after the November
election.

“In 2009, [transgender inclusion] depends
on the degree we move those votes and who
the president is,” Solmonese said.

The decision last year to remove protections
for gender identity and expression from
the House bill was met with a fusillade
of protest from nearly every state and local
LGBT group in the nation, as they formed
an ad hoc group called United ENDA.

The move to drop the clause was supported
by HRC and gay Rep. Barney Frank of Massachusetts,
who said the measure didn’t have the votes
to pass if transgender rights were included.
It was opposed by lesbian Rep. Tammy Baldwin
of Wisconsin.

The controversy re-opened a divide between
the gay equal rights lobby and advocates
of transgender rights that was thought to
have been settled in 2004 when HRC took
the position that only an ENDA with transgender
protection would be endorsed.

In late September, Solmonese told 900 transgender
people at the Southern Comfort convention
in Atlanta, “We try to walk within line
in terms of keeping everything in play and
making sure that we move forward, but always
being clear that we absolutely do not support,
in fact, oppose any legislation that is
not absolutely inclusive, and we have sent
that message loud and clear to the Hill.”

A few days later, the transgender inclusive
bill was switched to one that isn’t, with
HRC’s blessing, to avoid a possible Republican
parliamentary move to send the transgender
part back to committee. Donna Rose, the
only transgender HRC board member, resigned
over it.

In an open letter, Rose wrote, “The relationship
between HRC and the transgender community
is one scarred by betrayal, distrust, and
anger . . .”

The House passed the gay-only bill in November,
the first time either chamber had ever done
so. The Senate has yet to act on a companion
measure.

Solmonese said last weekend that the belief
that HRC would only support a transgender-inclusive
bill was “widely understood.” He also agrees
that what happened factionalized the community
and opened old wounds.

However, he maintains that the incremental
strategy is correct and should be supported.

“We have always been committed to the transgender-inclusive
ENDA,” Solmonese said. “The differences
are in how best to get there.”

“One of the ways to unify the community
is around working on going forward,” Solmonese
said. “There were transgender people walking
the halls of Congress with us two weeks
ago.”

“What will unite [the community] most is
the success of doing the work to move Congress,”
Solmonese said.

Solmonese said the transgender-inclusive
bill was pulled because “if there would
have been a motion to recommit and a vote,
there would have been more of a problem
with the public showing,” Solmonese said,
“and members of the transgender community
agree with that.”

He added that if John McCain becomes the
next president and promises to veto any
ENDA bill, it won’t matter if what gets
proposed is transgender inclusive or not.

“I want people to be prepared to vote on
it four or five more times if that happens,”
Solmonese said.

“With or without transgender inclusion?”
he was asked. Solmonese said that would
be too much speculation.

“Can’t answer until you know all the facts,”
he said.

Solmonese pointed to a group of House members
who voted to pass ENDA last year, but probably
wouldn’t back TG protections.

“What matters to HRC today is that in all
48 districts there is a plan and a strategy
to motivate the member in that district”
to support a transgender-inclusive ENDA,
he said.

Show me 220
members

Two hundred eighteen votes are required
to pass any bill in the 435-member House
of Representatives.

LGBT bloggers and message boards are speculating
that HRC and Frank will introduce, and work
to pass, a transgender-inclusive ENDA in
2009 if there are 220 votes for it. Short
of that number, it will not be inclusive.

“We understand that we have a responsibility
to close the [48-vote] gap,” Solmonese said.

Solmonese said the blowup between HRC and
the LGBT people siding with United ENDA
wasn’t all bad.

“One of the great things was that people
on Capitol Hill heard from state groups
more than ever before,” Solmonese said.

HRC will back
either Dem for president

Solmonese said that HRC will endorse whichever
Democrat, Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama,
is nominated to run for the White House.

Further, HRC will provide resources, money
and people, as well as policy expertise
to the Democratic campaign.

“LGBT issues are not the political wedge
that they were in 2004,” Solmonese said,
but he suggested that LGBT issues will still
come up and be part of the political conversation.

He added that the current candidates are
“a better field than the field before it.”

HRC is also working on turning back “a
whole range of discriminatory practices
that Bush instituted,” Solmonese said. The
new president will be given a list of HRC
priorities that can be done by executive
order, without requiring an act of Congress.